DAVID ZWIRNER

Published by David Zwirner.Text by Christine Mehring, Christoph Schreier.

Although it has been linked with distinct twentieth-century art practices--including abstraction, Minimalism and Conceptual art--Blinky Palermo’s (1943–1977) diverse body of work defies easy classification. Throughout his brief and influential career, Palermo executed paintings, objects, installations and works on paper that addressed the contextual and semantic issues at stake in the construction, exhibition and reception of works of art. This publication focuses in depth on the artist’s works on paper from 1976–1977, executed just prior to his untimely death in February 1977. Palermo’s late work is characterized by its explorations of the tensions and contrasts between material and color, surface and depth, and signification and abstraction. These works on paper convey his understanding of color as a system of signs. This fully illustrated catalogue is the first to comprehensively address this facet of Palermo’s practice and includes new scholarship by Christine Mehring and Christoph Schreier.

Shortly before his death in 1977, German painter Blinky Palermo created his most significant cycle of paintings, dedicating it "to the people of nyc." The work consists of 15 parts, composed from 40 painted aluminum panels arranged in combinations of cadmium red, cadmium yellow and black. Recalling Piet Mondrian's late series New York City (1941-42), and works by such American artists as Robert Ryman and Brice Marden, To the People of New York City (1976) is distinguished by its prescribed hanging and pacing, and its rhythmically changing formats, which also bring to mind the Jazz performances that Palermo sought out during his time in New York, where he had maintained a studio from 1973 to 1975. This handsome editiondiscusses To the People of New York City--today in the collection of New York's Dia Art Foundation--within this context and alongside works by his former teacher Joseph Beuys, and his long-time friends and colleagues Imi Knoebel and Gerhard Richter, among others.